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Civilian MRE

There has been much talk about Military MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) but in the last 20 years several companies have launched commercial MRE lines. The first companies to do this were food manufacturers that already had contracts with the Department of Defense to make military MRE's. They include Ameriqual's Apack, Sopako Surepak and Wornick Eversafe. Soon other companies who have government contracts, but not necessarily producing military MREs brought MRE meal kits to the market. The largest being MRESTAR who offers a large assortment of meals.

More recently there has been niche brands capitalizing on the growth of the shelf stable food market. One of the more recent entries is Z-Ration Zombie MRE and the Prospector MRE. Many of the components found in these civilian MREs are actually items found in military MRE's. The companies that produce the food make so much that they have large amounts of overruns that are moved to commercial sales. This allows smaller companies to enter the growing MRE market with there own lines of MRE, by buying these overruns and putting them into their perspective packaging.

Like military MRE's the civilian ones will come with a main Entrée, Bread or Tortilla, Dessert (Pound cake, filled good or dessert bar) and most come with a flameless Ration Heater or FRH along with some kind of drink mix, utensils and/or hot beverage. Many online sales sites offer these individual components for sale by themselves. Desserts, Entrée's and any other component can be found for sale.